S&S 2016 Lockout experiences

judeboy101

post your experiences of this momentous day in Irish workplace relations.

gaiscioch

judeboy101 wrote: »

post your experiences of this momentous day in Irish workplace relations.

It looks like this will be a watershed period alright. Just preparing and doing research on the longest strikes in union history. A strike in Dún Laoghaire lasted 14 years! (1939-53) Strikers died/left and the union just replaced them. Talk about fantastic spirit!

The Dublin strike that lasted 14 years.

A massive teachers' strike in New York lasted 36 school days in 1968, and all sacked teachers were reinstated.

It's ridiculously cold today. We need a song. It's not a real lockout until it's immortalised in song. No point in going to the barricades unless you can sing it out. We also need a radio station - Radio Free Múinteoir?- to keep spirits up. I want to be a dj there if I can address you all as "Unrepentent Múinteoir Bástards!"

We also need a fantastically catchy slogan - something as memorable as "Keep your rosaries off our ovaries!". Any suggestions?

I'm fully expecting Christy Moore to turn up with guitar in hand outside our school on Tuesday singing The Ballad of Jim Larkin, Joe Hill and Where oh Where is our James Connolly. (I was at a singing night in An Góilín in, coincidentally enough, Club na Múinteoirí on Parnell Square one night and in walked Christy with his guitar to sing Viva La Quinta Brigada.) At least Christy used to do that sort of thing!

trilobite80

Here as normal, early as normal.
Locked out.
Just had to turn away a kid whos parents obviously didnt get the text from the BOM.
0.5 deg.

Villain

One school in Wexford only sent texts out at 9pm last night, few angry parents with no arrangements made!

gaiscioch

Just signed the attendance record that the shop steward had and we had the group photo in front of the school. Great craic and solidarity.

I noticed kids in St Andrews uniform walking around Booterstown. I would have expected that to be an ASTI school and thus using that JMB advice to close the school to everybody.

mirrorwall14

I know of one fully ASTI school who managed to open for three year groups (they had enough supervision for that).

judeboy101

Great feeling of solidarity this morning some parents turned up with kids (must not check their txt's or letter box or email) . Told them to get onto their parents assc and reps to get school open. Also gave them official email of principal

solerina

Most of the staff and one student turned up at the school gate this morning, no hassle from people passing by, got a few waves and horn blows in support which was nice

coillsaille

Good atmosphere of solidarity at our lockout also. Was freezing cold but nice and crisp with the sun rising. We all stood around chatting, nobody was in a rush to go anywhere. Good few cars giving beeps and waving. One student showed up and was told the situation and that his parents need to check their emails and texts. He left looking quite bewildered.

Rightwing

What a shambles. The public sector know no shame. However, if gardai get a deal, all the others should too.

political analyst

gaiscioch wrote: »

It looks like this will be a watershed period alright. Just preparing and doing research on the longest strikes in union history. A strike in Dún Laoghaire lasted 14 years! (1939-53) Strikers died/left and the union just replaced them. Talk about fantastic spirit!

The Dublin strike that lasted 14 years.

A massive teachers' strike in New York lasted 36 school days in 1968, and all sacked teachers were reinstated.

It's ridiculously cold today. We need a song. It's not a real lockout until it's immortalised in song. No point in going to the barricades unless you can sing it out. We also need a radio station - Radio Free Múinteoir?- to keep spirits up. I want to be a dj there if I can address you all as "Unrepentent Múinteoir Bástards!"

We also need a fantastically catchy slogan - something as memorable as "Keep your rosaries off our ovaries!". Any suggestions?

I'm fully expecting Christy Moore to turn up with guitar in hand outside our school on Tuesday singing The Ballad of Jim Larkin, Joe Hill and Where oh Where is our James Connolly. (I was at a singing night in An Góilín in, coincidentally enough, Club na Múinteoirí on Parnell Square one night and in walked Christy with his guitar to sing Viva La Quinta Brigada.) At least Christy used to do that sort of thing!

The Dublin national teachers' strike in 1946 lasted 7 months.

ethical

ETBs scared sh!tless of opening some schools (where there are dual unions and non union staff) due to no s & s,eventhough there are non union staff available to do it to help their union colleagues cause.Fat cats looking after their own pensions and being rather selfish in locking out their communities!

StewartGriffin

coillsaille wrote: »

One student showed up and was told the situation and that his parents need to check their emails and texts. He left looking quite bewildered.

I hope someone established that the lad had the means to contact his parents and had access to his house if parents were at work.

Millem

gaiscioch wrote: »

Just signed the attendance record that the shop steward had and we had the group photo in front of the school. Great craic and solidarity.

I noticed kids in St Andrews uniform walking around Booterstown. I would have expected that to be an ASTI school and thus using that JMB advice to close the school to everybody.

We were told they would be open because they have always had privately paid supervisors.

dory

We had to turn up, sign the thing and wait around for the first period. So 40 minutes outside. Was that just us or did others hang around?

Lots of foreign students who may not watch Irish news turned up. No text was sent to the parents for some reason.

coillsaille

StewartGriffin wrote: »

I hope someone established that the lad had the means to contact his parents and had access to his house if parents were at work.

Obviously. We're teachers..

evolving_doors

dory wrote: »

We had to turn up, sign the thing and wait around for the first period. So 40 minutes outside. Was that just us or did others hang around?

Lots of foreign students who may not watch Irish news turned up. No text was sent to the parents for some reason.

Failing school notification wouldn't students even mention it to each other? That's odd. Social media and all that.

gaiscioch

That's two days of fantastic discussions on the picket line. We just kept going even when some of the others arrived to replace us. Then we ran out of signs so we were told to go.

Really enlightening talks with longer-serving teachers recalling strikes, management decisions and changes in the profession throughout the years. Criticism of the principal, defence of the principal. The discussion about different school management styles throughout the years and how they were perceived was really interesting. It was all there (admittedly it was in the one-to-one walks around I got all these views). This strike stuff is bonding.


(nice of a well-known TD to drop in - or, rather, out - and have a supportive chat with us. Nicer still was the local man who was sent out by his wife to count how many of us there were and see if we'd like tea or coffee. Society at its best.)

infogiver

Listening to the radio yesterday I definitely think that the Government are winning the battle for hearts and minds
The French teacher on Liveline was particularly poor when pushed even a little bit by Joe on the supervision issue.
Long pause followed by "...at the end of the day..." and trying to shift the issue to the equality of pay component just sounded cringe worthy.

RealJohn

infogiver wrote: »

Listening to the radio yesterday I definitely think that the Government are winning the battle for hearts and minds
The French teacher on Liveline was particularly poor when pushed even a little bit by Joe on the supervision issue.
Long pause followed by "...at the end of the day..." and trying to shift the issue to the equality of pay component just sounded cringe worthy.

I don't think I necessarily agree with that. I didn't hear Liveline (since I'm TUI in an almost fully TUI school and was working) but on any news bulletins I heard, the vast majority of the parents, students and members of the general public who spoke were on our side with only a handful saying anything negative about teachers.

Of course I also heard Ed Walsh on Newstalk and I was fit to drive to Limerick, find his office and deficate on his desk I was so annoyed at his clear anti-teacher agenda and completely illogical points but that's another story.

mitresize5

I'm all in support of this strike but lets be honest and call it what it is ... its a strike, its not a lock out.

Your doing yourselves no favours in calling it a lock out.

Moody_mona

mitresize5 wrote: »

I'm all in support of this strike but lets be honest and call it what it is ... its a strike, its not a lock out.

Your doing yourselves no favours in calling it a lock out.

Today is a strike. Yesterday wasn't. Teachers were locked out of their workplaces, in some instances.

infogiver

RealJohn wrote: »

I don't think I necessarily agree with that. I didn't hear Liveline (since I'm TUI in an almost fully TUI school and was working) but on any news bulletins I heard, the vast majority of the parents, students and members of the general public who spoke were on our side with only a handful saying anything negative about teachers.

Of course I also heard Ed Walsh on Newstalk and I was fit to drive to Limerick, find his office and deficate on his desk I was so annoyed at his clear anti-teacher agenda and completely illogical points but that's another story.

The teacher on Liveline was very sincere but Joe turned her inside out(not unkindly) very easily. I'm listening to different radio to you I guess.

evolving_doors

infogiver wrote: »

The teacher on Liveline was very sincere but Joe turned her inside out(not unkindly) very easily. I'm listening to different radio to you I guess.

I thought she held firm and stuck to the issue, and it made joe look like a whataboutery as he wasn't really able to address her replies.

the_syco

Gebgbegb wrote: »

Failing school notification wouldn't students even mention it to each other? That's odd. Social media and all that.

The number that was texted could have been an old number.

Student; Bob said there was a strike and the schools were shut.
Parent; That's the oldest one in the book! Get the fcuk to school now!

km79

Only one day's pay deducted today .......

Moody_mona

km79 wrote: »

Only one day's pay deducted today .......

Two for me by the looks of things. Our school was open on the Monday but there were no students.

km79

Moody_mona wrote: »

Two for me by the looks of things. Our school was open on the Monday but there were no students.

Ours was closed completely !
As predicted this day is a messy one for payroll
Thought they might take the easier option .......

feardeas

Doubt what was gone the last time so suppose two days docked. Wonder if there was some differences in how information was inputted from schools as per circular.

Marymidlands

Two days gone from me

coillsaille

Same here - docked two days (we weren't in the school on the 7th).

judeboy101

coillsaille wrote: »

Same here - docked two days (we weren't in the school on the 7th).

2 days gone and my opt out fee went down by 2days worth. Really weird as I was locked out Mon but was available to ' notdo work work I never did and paid not to do'

dory

So did we get let off with one day or something? We were on strike for two (one before midterm) and one day we were there but with no students.

Just checked and I'm socked 3 days. Did everyone else get docked on the last time and two now or something?

judeboy101

dory wrote: »

So did we get let off with one day or something? We were on strike for two (one before midterm) and one day we were there but with no students.

I got docked for the Thurs strike in last paycheck and for mon+Tues in this paycheck. I'm surprised they didn't leave the docking til Xmas paycheck like they used to do. Make it sting more.

sitstill

My school was open on the Monday but they didn't dock the money for Tuesday from my pay today. It was stopped from others in my school

acequion

Docked two days. Didn't look at my opt out fee but I suppose it's as someone above posted.

Still can't get my head around how the fcuk it can be legal to charge an employee for not doing something and then dock that same employee because he /she couldn't access the building to not do this thing. You couldn't make it up.

And they tell teachers to get real!!

Icsics

Docked for the strike day but not for the Mon, am an opt out....is this not consistent?

km79

Icsics wrote: »

Docked for the strike day but not for the Mon, am an opt out....is this not consistent?

Same for me but I do s and s

dory

km79 wrote: »

Same for me but I do s and s

Mad that it's so inconsistent. Was your school open or something on the Monday? Did you sign the form saying you'd do S&S?

km79

dory wrote: »

Mad that it's so inconsistent. Was your school open or something on the Monday? Did you sign the form saying you'd do S&S?

No and no
Assume it will be taken next pay packet

RealJohn

acequion wrote: »

Docked two days. Didn't look at my opt out fee but I suppose it's as someone above posted.

Still can't get my head around how the fcuk it can be legal to charge an employee for not doing something and then dock that same employee because he /she couldn't access the building to not do this thing. You couldn't make it up.

And they tell teachers to get real!!

I can't believe that the unions are rolling over on this one. Docking pay on a strike day - fair enough but docking pay for refusing to do work related to a defunct 'agreement' that no longer applies and still being available for the work you're contracted to do? I'm TUI in an almost fully TUI school so it doesn't apply to me but if it did, I'd be raging, both at the government for doing it and at the union for doing nothing about it. As it is, I'm raging on your behalf. It was essentially work to rule. Since when do you get docked pay for work to rule? It CAN'T be legal.

deiseindublin

RealJohn wrote: »

I'm TUI in an almost fully TUI school so it doesn't apply to me but if it did, I'd be raging, both at the government for doing it and at the union for doing nothing about it.

No, but instead we get to rage at our union for doing nothing about everything!

RealJohn

deiseindublin wrote: »

No, but instead we get to rage at our union for doing nothing about everything!

That's true but not very relevant in this case.

Starkystark

I got docked strike day and the day we got "locked out" and when I say locked out the kids were told not to come in and we teachers were left with an open door that morning so we all stayed in for the day! I'm absolutely raging! If I'd known I wasn't going to get paid - I would've walked out and say in the comfort of my own home.

Icsics

Starkystark wrote: »

I got docked strike day and the day we got "locked out" and when I say locked out the kids were told not to come in and we teachers were left with an open door that morning so we all stayed in for the day! I'm absolutely raging! If I'd known I wasn't going to get paid - I would've walked out and say in the comfort of my own home.

How is there such discrepancy? We were in, no kids & got paid. Does it depend on the principal?

Starkystark

Icsics wrote: »

How is there such discrepancy? We were in, no kids & got paid. Does it depend on the principal?

I really haven't a clue! It must be. I need to contact payroll. I grate ringing them I get so worked up about it all. Between tax and usc. I just wished to god some of it could go towards my student loan.